Timothy Carney writes that Tommy Thompson's win in Wisconsin's Senate primary was a victory for the Republican Party's K Street wing:
Thompson was the favorite of Beltway GOP leaders, and his campaign was funded in great part by K Street lobbying firms, Beltway-based business PACs and his own wealth, earned as a lobbyist and director of firms dependent on government for profit….
As President George W. Bush's secretary of health and human services, Thompson helped the Medicare prescription-drug entitlement across the finish line. Then, after leaving HHS, he monetized that experience, going to work for companies benefiting from this expansion of government….The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that Thompson's clients included the drug lobby. In 2009, Thompson publicly applauded the Obamacare bill supported by the drug lobby.
My favorite part:
Thompson repeatedly got away with shilling for his clients under the banner of former HHS secretary. In a 2011 ABCNews.com interview on anthrax, Thompson said Congress needs to "support the second-generation vaccine."
He twice name-checked his client PharmAthene as a maker of such a vaccine, never disclosing the company was paying him.
